Five Scottish Supernova sailors registered for the Loch Lomond Dinghy Weekend from both Castle Semple and Port Edgar. Unfortunately, Calum didn't manage to get there but did post a picture of his space saver spare wheel on the car to explain why. Now we were four.
Saturday started flat calm with a breeze gentle breeze forecast. We got on the water at 12.30 and had a gentle sail to the race area. We were 3rd start with the low rider Moths behind the Blazes and fast handicap. Pete Sykes took the lead from Andy MacDonald followed by Rob Plant and Gary O'Conner. Rob sailed the wrong course and just thought he was in the lead until he realised and consequently scored a DNF.
Race two was delayed as the wind shifted about 90 degrees to the west and the RO team re-laid the marks. This time the pin end of the line was favoured but as Andy discovered, it was overrun with Moths. Pete took the gap at the committee boat end and found clear air. This time Rob got ahead of Andy after a bad shift left him in a hole with nowhere to go. Race three was similar to race one, but this time Rob sailed the right course and at the end only one minute covered all 4 boats.
There then followed a wind-less interlude with many competitors willing the RO to let us sail back to shore and the RO apparently saying "Give it 10 minutes and see what comes" more than once. When it did come the wind went from 2 to 20 kn in the space of a minute and as it had shifted back 45 degrees, the course was re-laid for the final, rather windy race. Later that evening the Supernova sailors visited The Oak Tree in Balmaha for dinner with Andy and Garry then moving to the clubhouse bar.
On Sunday we woke to calm before the storm. As we sailed out expectations were low as the committee boat had the AP flying. But the wind filled from the south and/or southwest, occasionally west and a course was laid after with just a couple of adjustments as the wind gods made their minds up. The first beat was long and Andy and Pete battled ahead. Rob and Garry were now getting much closer to the front two.
On the second beat, Pete somehow decided that orange was the new yellow and opted to sail on the longer beat on the wrong side of the course rather than the shorter beat on the correct side. Andy got the win this time and while Pete caught Rob at the last leeward mark, he then managed to tack onto starboard to avoid sailing under two GP14s only to find they tacked too. This blocked his return to port tack while Rob spotted the shift and got lifted all the way to the line .
For race 2 on Sunday, the wind was still building and swinging about. The beat was hard with knockdown gusts, then suddenly nothing closely followed by back to heavy wind. Andy had the lead until the short last beat where a hole of nothing swallowed him up letting Pete and Rob through with Andy only to recover and beat Rob by a fraction of a second.
Race 3 was thankfully a quieter affair and the RO managed a course change again to cope with the new wind direction (more south this time) The course was shorter and sailors were soon heading back to harbour. When, of course, the wind dutifully shifted back to west, giving a dead run in a strong wind onto a busy slip with more than one competitor getting their first capsize of the weekend on arrival.
Overall, an excellent weekend of fun and learning for all (Calum remember a real size spare tyre) congratulations to Pete Sykes on 1st, Andy MacDonald 2nd, Rob Plant 3rd and getting faster and Gary O'Connor who was right on the tail of the fleet by the end. Also, a massive thank you to Loch Lomond Sailing Club for hosting such a great event and to the ROs for excellent race management in some really challenging conditions.
Overall Results:
Pos Sail No Helm Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 Pts
1st 1372 Pete Sykes PEYC 1 1 1 1 ‑3 1 1 6
2nd 1175 Andrew Macdonald Castle Semple SC 2 ‑3 2 2 1 2 3 12
3rd 548 Robert Plant Castle Semple SC (DNC) 2 3 3 2 3 2 15
4th 1059 Garry OConnor PEYC 3 (RET) 4 4 4 4 4 23
5th 1204 Calum Robertson PEYC DNC (DNC) DNC DNC DN DNC 29
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